haste

American  

[hayst] / heɪst /

noun

1. swiftness of motion; speed; celerity.

   He performed his task with great haste. They felt the need for haste.

   Antonyms:

   sloth

2. urgent need of quick action; a hurry or rush.

   to be in haste to get ahead in the world.

   Synonyms:

   urgency, ado, bustle, flurry

3. unnecessarily quick action; thoughtless, rash, or undue speed.

   Haste makes waste.

   Synonyms:

   precipitation, precipitancy

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verb (used with or without object)

• hastes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• hasted,
  past participle,  past
• hasting
  present participle

1. Archaic. to hasten.

idioms

1. make haste, to act or go with speed; hurry.

   She made haste to tell the president the good news.

haste British  

/ heɪst /

noun

1. speed, esp in an action; swiftness; rapidity

2. the act of hurrying in a careless or rash manner

3. a necessity for hurrying; urgency

4. to hurry; rush

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verb

1. a poetic word for hasten

haste More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing haste

• make haste

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Usage

What does haste mean? Haste most commonly refers to urgency, such as in completing a task. It can also be used as another word for speed or swiftness, as in We have to move with haste if we want to make it on time. The phrase make haste means to move quickly, hurry up, or rush. Often, haste means urgency or speed that is careless or reckless. This is how the word is used in the expression haste makes waste, which means that rushing things leads to mistakes. The adjective form hasty is most often used in this sense—a hasty decision is one that is thought to have been made too quickly, perhaps leading to negative consequences. The adverb form is hastily. The verb hasten means to go faster or cause to go faster, as in We need to hasten our efforts. Example: In my haste to finish the project, I forgot to put my name on it.

Synonym Usage

See speed.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hastelessness
  noun
• hasteful
  adjective
• hasteless
  adjective
• unhasted
  adjective
• unhasting
  adjective
• hastefully
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• hasting
  present
• hasted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• haste
  simple
• hastes
  simple
• have hasted
  perfect
• has hasted
  perfect
• am hasting
  progressive
• are hasting
  progressive
• is hasting
  progressive
• have been hasting
  perfect progressive
• has been hasting
  perfect progressive

Past

• hasted
  simple
• had hasted
  perfect
• was hasting
  progressive
• were hasting
  progressive
• had been hasting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will haste
  simple
• will have hasted
  perfect
• will be hasting
  progressive
• will have been hasting
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of haste

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Old French from Germanic; akin to Old Frisian hāste, Old English hæst “violence,” Old Norse heifst “hatred,” Gothic haifsts “quarrel”

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Explanation

When something is done in haste, it's done fast, and often with carelessness. In his haste to finish the paper, he didn't notice he had replaced "taste" with "waste" during spell-checking, so his title became "Foods of Our Home State: What a Waste!" The old saying goes "haste makes waste," and when you try to do things too quickly, sometimes you do them wrong or have to do them all over again. You can use the noun haste for things done with extraordinary speed and often in a situation where there's pressure to perform or complete a task. "In her haste to catch the train she ran six blocks, but when she boarded, she noticed she was wearing one blue tennis shoe and one red one."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

haste hastes hasted hasting

I realized that replying to complicated requests or problems in anger or haste was never smart, so I kept his rule to slow my response time down eight hours for future correspondence.

From Slate ● Sep. 27, 2026

The haste of the transaction would seem to have given the buyers superior leverage, yet Walter negotiated a 25% increase on the $10 billion he spent on the team last October.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026

A team of animal lovers has come to the rescue of pets people left behind in their haste in the area west of the wine-making capital of Bordeaux.

From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026

Tehran has found backing for that word in the very vague details of the deal - known as a memorandum of understanding - which was drafted in haste in June.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

Workers were paid by the ton, which both encouraged them to hack out coal with reckless haste and meant that any labor they expended making their environment safer or more comfortable went uncompensated.

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

Hours or days or years it may be, Before hopes realization they see; And no sooner it comes than it hastes away, And others rush after no longer to stay.

From Yorkshire Lyrics Poems written in the Dialect as Spoken in the West Riding of Yorkshire. To which are added a Selection of Fugitive Verses not in the Dialect by John Hartley

But fleeter far, young Lycus hastes to slip Through swords, through foes, and gains the walls, and tries To climb them, and a comrade's hand to grip.

From The Æneid of Virgil Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor by Edward Fairfax Taylor

Pleased to wear the crown, A forum good Acestes hastes to frame, And laws to gathered senators proclaim.

From The Æneid of Virgil Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor by Edward Fairfax Taylor

Soft voices and light laughter wake the street, 105Like notes of woodbirds, and where'er the eye Threads the long way, plumes wave, and twinkling feet Fall light, as hastes that crowd of beauty by.

From Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant Household Edition by Richard Henry Stoddard

Let us remember "That trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay, As ocean sweeps the labored mote away; Whilst self-dependent power can time defy, As rocks resist the billows and the sky."

From The Right of American Slavery by T. W. (True Worthy) Hoit

A group of Templars hasted to him, seized him and repelled him from me.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023

So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

From Time Magazine Archive

It stood still in the midst of the heaven and hasted not to go down.

From Time Magazine Archive

The two elder ranis having been informed of what had occurred, hasted to the raja, and said, “Oh! raja, why are you sulking?”

From Santal Folk Tales by A. Campbell

I soon met with Sir William, and on my expressing an inclination to retire, to my great astonishment, instead of censuring, he commended my resolution, and hasted to the door to procure my carriage.

From The Sylph, Volume I and II by Georgiana Cavendish

Your hasting away will leave me without food, and hunger will kill me.

From Jamaican Song and Story Annancy stories, digging sings, ring tunes, and dancing tunes by Walter Jekyll

Reuben Ramble Ran a Ridiculous Rattling Race on a Railway, And beat the train in hasting to get a book at Cole's Book Arcade.

From Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 by E. W. (Edward William) Cole

It was his hasting to bless Esau which drove Rebekah to checkmate him by winning the blessing for her favourite.

From The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis by Marcus Dods

Thence, hasting by private stairs and passages, he came at length unseen to his own chamber, tore off his clothes, and threw himself upon his bed in the dark.

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 7 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson

But come near to me, David; I have some last words to say, and there is One at my side hasting me forward.”

From Prisoners of Conscience by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

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Related Words

• alacrity
• urgency

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